[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Pennsylvania

[Delirium]

Daniel Mayer wrote:
> --- Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
>   
>> On Jul 10, 2007, at 8:35 AM, Dmcdevit wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Brion Vibber wrote:
>>>       
>>>> What's the argument in favor of state-level blocks?
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Indeed, out of curiosity, what is the reason for a sub-country chapter
>>> at all, in contrast to most others? This might be obvious, but it
>>> doesn't seem anyone has said it yet.
>>>       
>> One reason is that the United States is a really really really big  
>> country.  France is the largest country in the EU.  It's a little  
>> smaller than Texas, so if France were an American state (an amusing  
>> and unlikely thought) it would be the 3rd largest.
>>
>> Having a "local chapter" including both New York City, Chicago, and  
>> Los Angeles doesn't feel very "local".
>>     
>
> Any US-wide chapter would be divided into regions and have local clubs for metro areas. I really
> don't see the point in duplicating overhead when a single legal structure could benefit an entire
> nation. 
>   
Given that the Wikimedia Foundation is already US-incorporated, why do 
we even need a separate legal structure for a Wikimedia US, as opposed 
to having it be an unincorporated body?  The things that I see other 
countries' Wikimedia chapters doing that need a legal entity, such as 
collecting donations tax-deductibly, liasing with local corporations, 
running local servers, etc., are already handled in the US by the main 
WMF, so what would the new legal entity do?

-Mark